Whatever you do, don't make your kids hyphenate their names. I worked with a married girl who had a triple name. (Dad's last name -Mom's last name - husband's last name.)

That's just not very cool. And are her kids going to have the triple hyphen? Eventually even a Quadruple hyphen?

Yeah I can see where hyphenated names work for lots of people! It definitely seems like an equitable solution. It doesn't appeal to me personally, though. I would just give the children my husband's surname.

I really appreciate all of the responses. The great thing about a message board is that people will be more honest, and it is all food for thought. I love hearing everyone's thoughts on the matter and there's nothing offensive about any of them!

@stareindecisis, you sound just like my boyfriend; Thanks so much for being honest when the easiest thing to do is stick to a PC response. That goes for everyone, actually.

You start talking about the future with your girlfriend, and it comes out that she does not want to change her last name, but would rather keep her own name instead. It's not for an extenuating reason, such as an established career--she'd just rather keep her own name. How would you feel? Be honest, and not PC!

My boyfriend and I had a two hour argument about this issue, and I finally relented and agreed to change my last name if we got married. I know taking your husband's last name is by far the most common thing for a woman to do, I just didn't feel like doing it. But, I did relent since it was such a big deal to him.

How would you react to your future wife wanting to keep her maiden name?

3Ls, are you planning to practice in Washington, DC, Baltimore, or elsewhere in the DC/MD/VA region? Do you want to take a BarBri prep course in Philadelphia to prepare for the Maryland or Virginia bar exam?

Currently, Barbri doesn’t offer a MD or VA prep course in the Philadelphia area, even though many of us who live in the Philadelphia area plan to take one of these exams to practice in the National Capitol Region.

According to BarBri, 25 students must sign up for a specific bar prep course in a locality for that bar prep course to be offered. If you plan to, or are considering staying in Philadelphia this summer while you prepare for the bar, and would be interested in taking the Maryland or Virginia BarBri course if it were offered here, please send me a personal message ASAP so we can arrange for a course to be offered.

I’m reaching out to students at Philadelphia-area law schools this week to gauge interest, and I need to contact BarBri by April 15 to arrange a course offering.

If you are considering taking the Maryland or Virginia bar and staying in Philadelphia to study, please PM me with: your name, state you want offered (or if you would take either if only one is offered—DC allows members of both state bars to waive in), email address, and whether you are already signed up for BarBri.

One of my friends from a low-level 2nd Tier law school was telling me about his post-graduation plan. (He graduates in May, his grades are pretty bad). He is almost certain that he will not be employed in the near future, even if he passes the bar.

He has secured an unpaid fellowship at an influential public interest organization where he would love to work one day (or he would someday love to work at a similar organization), and he plans to supplement this unpaid fellowship by doing 30-35 hours of document review a week. He is locked into this unpaid fellowship for a year and must put in a minimum of 20 unpaid hours per week.

He argues that it will provide him decent money (from the doc review) while allowing him to gain more experience and make contacts in an area he would love to work in (the PT Law Fellowship).

My constructive criticism was that this plan precludes him from getting a full-time permanent position somewhere else for an entire year, and that seems like kind of a gamble. His comeback: he believes he'd be unemployed for a year anyway!

I go to school in PA and want to practice in the DC/VA/MD area, where I'm from. I'm not sure which bar to take.

I know that passing the bar in any state will allow me to practice in DC. So should I take MD or VA? What makes the VA Bar so hard, and how does MD measure up? The bar passage rate in VA (in the 70s) don't seem that scary, but I have heard it is a really tough exam. I don't have the best law school grades so keep in mind that I'm probably more likely than most to fail.